When it comes to Sinéad O’Connor’s back catalogue it’s hard for many to look beyond the stripped-back vocals and visuals of her mega-hit Nothing Compares 2 U. But to view her solely in the light of that one track is doing her a disservice.
Though Nothing Compares 2 U – written by Prince – catapulted her career into the stratosphere, O’Connor left behind a huge body of work that deserves to be explored. Not one to shy away from experimentation, her work includes Jamaican-inspired reggae (in her album Throw Down Your Arms), mainstream pop (2014’s I’m Not Bossy, I’m the Boss), and even 19th-century hymns in the form of her reworking of I Am Stretched On Your Grave.
To mark a year since O’Connor’s untimely death, here is a selection of some of her best songs, showing the breadth of her extraordinary talent.
Black Boys on Mopeds (1990)
Taken from her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, this rousing call to action takes aim at the institutional racism in British society. What’s remarkable, though, is how current this lullaby-esque song still feels. It was written to commemorate two young boys from London who took a cousin’s moped without asking permission; they were then chased by the police, got spooked and crashed the moped, killing them both.
“England’s not the mythical land of Madame George and roses/ It’s the home of police who kill black boys on mopeds,” sings O’Connor against a spare guitar-driven backdrop, her voice sweetly sad.
Mandinka (1987)
This early hit is the standout song from her first album The Lion and The Cobra – which was released when O’Connor was just 21 years old – and marked her out from the start as a force to be reckoned with. Written when she was still a teenager, it did alt-rock before alt-rock was even cool, borrowing the title from Alex Haley’s 1976 epic Roots: The Saga of an American Family.
Over a driving guitar riff, O’Connor coos, chants and snarls the lyrics to her song (“I don’t know no shame / I feel no pain / I can’t see the flame”), turning her pain into a celebration of defiance and strength. She later performed the song on Late Night with David Letterman, wearing a spiked denim jacket and bobbing around like a boxer: iconic.
My Special Child (1991)
Released in 1991, My Special Child is arguably one of O’Connor’s most personal tracks. “The song itself is about my experience with having had an abortion last year and how I dealt with that and how it made me feel,” she told Spin Magazine. At a time when abortion in Ireland was still illegal, her forthrightness was a radical act – though the song itself is deeply tender, combining delicate violin strings with the lightest touch of synth. And of course, O’Connor’s voice is sublime.
I Want Your Hands On Me (1988)
It’s impossible not to listen to this 1988 track and not start toe-tapping. Deeply funk-infused, I Want Your Hands On Me is a celebration of sexual desire that glides along on a jelly-legged, grooving beat; O’Connor croons the lyrics with absolute confidence. “You know I wanna please you/ What I wanna do to you,” she sings; is it any wonder that the song was a sensation when it was released? It remains one of her most irresistibly joyous pieces of work.
Haunted, with Shane MacGowan (1995)
Haunted, though tonally so different from Nothing Compares, is proof of O’Connor’s ability to add a sprinkling of stardust to pretty much any track she covered. Haunted was originally a 1986 single by fellow Irish musicians The Pogues, but was re-recorded in 1995 by O’Connor and former Pogues vocalist Shane MacGowan. Their voices – his rough and raspy, hers light and ethereal – combine perfectly over a poppy, guitar-laden backing track, while the music video bathes a shaven-headed O’Connor in shades of blue.
4th and Vine (2013)
4th and Vine was the second single from O’Connor’s ninth album, How About I Be Me (and You Be You)?, which was released in 2012. The upbeat track, which opens the album, provides audiences with a glimpse of a more carefree O’Connor – in the black and white music video, the first O’Connor had appeared in for a decade, she’s singing along with friends in a pub after a wedding and few things are more heartwarming to watch.
Despite 4th and Vine being a far cry from much of O’Connor’s earlier body of work – or perhaps because of it – the happy track quickly became a firm favourite of her fans. “I’m going down to the church / On 4th and Vine / I’m gonna marry my love,” she sings against the lively rhythm of the strumming guitar.
I Am Stretched On Your Grave (1990)
I Am Stretched On Your Grave is O’Connor’s cover of Irish musician Philip King’s 1979 take on the 17th-century Irish poem Táim sínte ar do thuama, which is a story about grieving after losing someone you love.
The slightly jarring mix of O’Connor’s ethereal wails and the much-sampled Funky Drummer break from James Brown’s 1970 classic song Funky Drummer make it one of O’Connor’s most memorable songs. The two contrasting tones work brilliantly, with O’Connor’s ever-striking sound propelled forward by Brown’s crisp downtempo snares, as she sings about tremendous loss: “I am stretched on your grave / And I’ll lie here forever.”
Troy (1987)
Troy was released as the debut single from O’Connor’s debut album, The Lion and the Cobra. The song shows the Irish singer’s full range – it starts out slow and somewhat sprightly, then moves into the more earnest tones and barely constrained anger that became her signature. It has become a real fan favourite: listening to Troy is like being taken along a six-and-a-half-minute epic drama. The song is inspired by the poem No Second Troy by Irish poet WB Yeats, which is about rejection and unrequited love.
Drink Before The War (1987)
Another stand out from her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, Drink Before The War is moody, gorgeous, and angry, as she sings about how people with “a heart of stone” look the other way, seeing themselves as protected from “the war” – which could be seen as representing politics and societal issues, as well as actual war itself.
This is early O’Connor – the album was written when she was pregnant with her first child, pre-stardom and pre-public hysteria. Nevertheless, many of the themes that would come to define the singer’s works and life seem to already be laid out: the album’s title is lifted from Psalms 91:13, which says “You will walk upon the lion and cobra, You will trample the young lion and the serpent.”
What Your Soul Sings, Massive Attack (2003)
This track from Massive Attack’s 2003 album 100th Window sounds like Elizabeth Fraser’s This Mortal Coil and Massive Attack’s Teardrop have been put in a blender. It’s a rare treat to hear O’Connor’s exquisite voice against the Bristol band’s signature down-tempo hip hop beat.
On the same album, O’Connor collaborated on two further tracks: the more intense Special Cases, and A Prayer For England – a more energic number where O’Connor sings to God, asking that “Let not another child be slain” – both of which are great, too. “Honestly. To bear witness to her voice, intimately in the studio. On the road every single person stopped – dropped their tools during soundcheck,” said Massive Attack in their tribute to the late singer.
